The present invention relates to an automatic diagnostic apparatus with a stethoscope, which automatically reads and records the name of the disease of a patient by ausculated sounds and enables the recorded data to be monitored by the physician, patient, and others concerned.
Conventionally, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and gastrointestinal diseases were distinguished according to the sounds asculated from the body of a patient and the degree of the seriousness of a disease was assessed by such sounds.
If a precise diagnosis was to be made by the ausculated sounds, an extensive empirical knowledge of various and diverse forms of auscultated sounds was necessary. Moreover, a patient had to be examined closely over a long period of time. However, in practice, a physician had to see many patients each day, and the time the physician had to spare for each patient was short, making it difficult, in many cases, to diagnose the patient swiftly and accurately.
Furthermore, a considerable number of patients were incredulous of the results of the physician""s diagnosis offhand, and therefore, patients wandered through several hospitals until there were satisfied by the same diagnosis given by them. Thus, many patients spent unnecessarily long times before they made a decision to be treated by a physician, losing, more often than not, an opportunity for an early and effective treatment.
The diagnosis should be speedy and accurate, but conventional methods of examining a patient took a physician a prolonged period of time, relying on his or her rather subjective knowledge, resulting often in young and inexperienced physicians giving an erroneous diagnosis.
In the case of an electrocardiogram examination, the name of the disease is made available automatically as soon as the electrocardiogram examination is completed by the machine reading the information contained in the electrocardiogram, helping the physician to make a diagnosis precisely and conveniently.
However, in the examination of a patient by means of a stethoscope, as there is no apparatus for reading the name of a disease by the sounds of auscultation, the physician diagnoses a patient based on his personal knowledge and experience.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above-described disadvantages of conventional techniques for auscultation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a diagnostic apparatus by which the name of the disease is automatically read and recorded based on the auscultated sounds, while making it possible to monitor the examination results.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a diagnostic apparatus, which enables both the physician and the patient to monitor the result of the examination in order to take quick action to treat the disease through mutual awareness of the patient""s disease between the physician and the patient.
In achieving the above objects, the diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes:
a stethoscope with a microphone for inputting the auscultated sounds from a patient;
a filter for filtering the auscultated sounds; an amplifier for amplifying the filtered auscultated sounds;
a digital converter for digitizing the waveform data of the amplified auscultated sounds;
a computer for inputting the converted waveform data of auscultated sounds and comparing them with the standard data information of auscultated sounds, inputted beforehand, of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and gastrointestinal diseases; and
a computer output recording device and a device for reading, recording, and diagnosing the auscultated sounds of the present invention displayed on a monitor.
The physician, following the ordinary process of examining a patient, auscultates a patient on various portions of the patient""s body in a set sequence, auscultating the patient under various circumstances, changing the position of the patient appropriately, to obtain the auscultatory sound data.
The auscultated sound data obtained by the stethoscope microphone is filtered through a filter, which filters the noise that comes from outside the patient""s body before the auscultated sounds are amplified. The analogue waveform of the amplified auscultated sounds are converted to digital data though a digital converter, and this digital data is inputted into a computer.
The auscultated digital data thus inputted into the computer is compared through searches with the standard data information of auscultated sounds of various diseases, which have already been inputted in the computer beforehand, and then a relevant disease name is pinpointed and outputted to the monitor of the computer.
The outputted name of disease is automatically recorded in the recording device, and the recorded data can be outputted repeatedly. The recorded name of the disease can be viewed by the physician; the nurses, the patient and the family of the patient, and by others. Thus, a required treatment can start swiftly with consensus among all concerned.
According to the present invention, the name of the disease is decided not by the physician""s own personal judgment alone, but with the help of the result of the search and comparison of the various data of the newly auscultated sounds by the computer with the standard data information inputted beforehand, thereby preventing the possible misjudgment of the physician resulting from his inexperience and lack of knowledge. The credibility of the result of the examination and the diagnosis is thereby enhanced. As a precise name of the disease is available through an objective process, the treatment of the disease can begin with greater certainty and swiftness, thus helping the physician to undertake the treatment with greater confidence more speedily and accurately, thereby improving and expediting the chances of the patient""s recovery from the disease.